Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tiny Mix Tapes on Sun Splitter "II"

Warlock-metal? Ritualistic metal? Stone-the-crow metal? Whatever you call it, Sun Splitter hang around the low-low-LOW end of the spectrum. Your speakers will wheeze with very-real pain, your tweeters taking the day off while your woofers work overtime. Majestic guitar leads; maybe this is dungeon-meta ... Slow stomps, guitars tuned low and crunchy like that first — and only the first — Pelican EP (back before they were Pelican't) or Pungent Stench or maybe even Entombed. Much, much slower than any of those, though. Cathedral could have been this heavy if they had a better screamer and laid off the up-tempo Sabbath vamps, but it never really happened, did it? Neurosis too; that's a natural mention any time a metal band dials things down, but there's a particularly strong connection in this instance. There's a point where it's either sink or swim, either the tape distinguishes itself as a force to be reckoned with or gets tossed in the pile with the burnouts. And it does, in a big way, suddenly, machine-gun double-bass, surging-sea riffs, pounding toms, ghostly group-screams. GUUUUUUAAAAAAHHHH!!! Hell yeah.